![]() ![]() What was their preferred leadership style you might ask? It was, in fact, democratic leadership.Įxamples of laissez-faire leaders can come from anywhere, even outside of business. It went against the centralised forms of leadership that were the norm at the time (such as transactional leadership).Īn interesting thing to note is that Lewin and his research partners decided that neither laissez-faire nor autocratic would cut it as leadership styles. Together with his team of psychologists, Lewin understood that laissez-faire leadership required the least amount of managerial oversight. In fact, human resources have a lot to thank Lewin for as his research on assessing and managing workplace productivity is still used to this day.ĭuring his studies, Lewin identified laissez-faire leadership as the opposite of autocratic leadership. Lewin, an expert in social psychology, was one of the first to research group dynamics and organisational psychology. We can thank German-American psychologist Kurt Lewin for developing the concept into a style of leadership in the 1930s. It’s important to note that while laissez-faire economics is similar to laissez-faire leadership, the two are not identical. In other words, “ Let it be.” (I don’t think Paul McCartney had this in mind when writing his ballad.) In this mythical meeting, the finance minister asked Le Gendre how the French government could help boost commerce, to which Le Gendre answered “ Laissez-nous faire”. While the origins of the phrase are heavily contested, rumour has it that it came from a meeting between the French finance minister Jean-Baptise Colbert and a businessman named Le Gendre in 1681. Namely, French Physiocrats during the 18th century who believed that economic success was impossible when governments tried to, well, govern it. Lack of guidance and feedback from the leader may also affect the viability of the project which in turn may lead to inadequate integration among the teammates.Laissez-faire originally emerged as an economic philosophy of free-market capitalism uncontrolled by government oversight. The theory itself was developed by the – you guessed it - French. Also, the project may suffer if no clear lines of authority and responsibility are defined among the group members. One of the major disadvantages of the Laissez-Faire leadership style is that the project may go off track in case the group members are not knowledgeable and lacks experience in making the effective decisions. Thus, highly passionate team members prefer this style of leadership. The Laissez-Faire style is most suitable in the situations, where the group members are more knowledgeable than the leader and possess expertise in a particular field that can be used to find a solution to the complex problem. ![]() This leadership style proves to be beneficial only when the group members are highly skilled, well-motivated and capable enough to accomplish the task assigned to them. Although, the subordinates are given the power and authority to make decisions the leader still takes responsibility for the actions of his group members. In Laissez-Faire leadership style, the leader maintains contact with outside people and bring in information to the group members which they need for the accomplishment of the given task. ![]()
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